


quoth the raven, "bring him back"

by soldieroftroy



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, major spoilers for episode 26
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-09 20:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15275781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soldieroftroy/pseuds/soldieroftroy
Summary: Caleb was so sure that he would've been first to go.He'd made his peace with that. He hadn't made his peace withthis.





	quoth the raven, "bring him back"

**Author's Note:**

> hi i literally wrote this at four in the morning crying alone in the dark after the stream, and i need to put this bundle of emotion i'm having somewhere so i leave it the fuck alone and don't torture myself with it
> 
> pour one out for mollymauk tealeaf long may he reign

Everything happens all at once,  when it finally happens. After.

After.

It’s a raw, hollow feeling, the way Caleb was so fucking sure that it would be him. He’d made peace with it while nailed to a wall deep inside a prison with blood gushing out his mouth and dripping thick trails down his chin. He’d looked at the world, nodded, and kept fighting, content in the knowledge that he would die this way.

He’d been so _sure_.

But no longer.

After, he moves without moving, teetering forward on wobbly legs to collapse at Molly’s side. On a twisted instinct, he puts his palms down directly on the worst of Molly’s wounds and presses, presses hard, because he knows that he has to stop the bleeding to save someone he loves when they’re hurt this badly.

He’s never been able to save someone he loves before. Distantly, he is more than aware that the gods wouldn’t let him start now.

Beau is saying something, loud and angry over his shoulder, but the words turn to mush before they reach him. He’s too focused on where Molly’s chest should be rising, falling, rising again; he’s too focused on pumping every little bit of energy he has into the strongest spell he can think of.

Frumpkin weighs a hundred thousand pounds on Caleb’s shoulder, and he has never been less comforted by the presence.

A pulse of warmth erupts from Caleb’s fingertips, and the energy crackles in the air around him.

Nott, at his side, is holding out two copper pieces, silently begging. He can do this. He can’t. He… he can’t _not_ do this.

There is a flicker of hope in the air, and even if all it buys them is a useless ten-day, he’d rather cut off a finger than ignore the chance when it comes.

The blood is sticky on his skin as he closes each of Molly’s eyes and puts a coin down on the lids. In Mollymauk style, Caleb leans forward and casts the spell with a kiss to the tiefling’s forehead.

 _He can do so little, but he can do this_.

Frumpkin’s claws dig heavy into his shoulder, and for a moment he doesn’t notice the new sound under Frumpkin’s wing-beats as he struggles for balance, but the first thing he sees when he sits back up is a monstrous black bird staring back at him. In its beak, it clutches a length of smooth golden ribbon.

A thousand emotions are combatting at the back of his throat, drowning together in Caleb’s dissociative void, but the one that he feels the strongest is white-hot rage.

“ _Bring ihn zurück_ ,” he snarls, clutching too tightly at Molly’s silk coat. Another surge of magic bursts out of him, wild and hot in a way he hasn’t felt since being dragged off to the asylum. " _Er kann nicht, er kann nicht tot sein, niemand kann sterben, wir sind The Mighty Nein, gib ihn zurück!_ ”

The raven hops forward, head cocking to the other side, and drops the ribbon at Mollymauk’s side. An offering.

“ _Bitte_.”

“ _Zurück_ ,” says the raven, in Caleb’s own voice. “ _Zurück_.”

“ _Bitte_.”

(He is crying, maybe. Everything is too much for him to really be able to tell.)

“ _Nicht tot sein, zurück_ ,” the raven repeats, cocking its head once more before it returns to the sky.

**Author's Note:**

> translations:  
> “Bring ihn zurück" -- Bring him back  
> “Er kann nicht, er kann nicht tot sein, niemand kann sterben, wir sind The Mighty Nein, gib ihn zurück!” -- He can't be, he can't be dead, nobody can die, we're The Mighty Nein, give him back!  
> "Bitte" -- Please  
> "Zurück" -- Back  
> "Nicht tot sein, zurück" -- Not dead, back


End file.
